Guangzhou Old Town, south of the city, and across the water street.

The light emitted by a kerosene lamp comes from far to near, accompanied by the sound of horse hooves, and the carriage slowly drives along the old stone road.

The old city of Guangzhou under the night is deep and quiet. On the right of the narrow stone road is a small river flowing silently, with shattered moonlight waving on the water.

The left hand of the stone road is a high wall. I don’t know which wealthy house’s back wall extends continuously. The base of the bluestone wall is covered with delicate moss, the blue brick wall is covered with fine marks of time, and every corner tells the prominent family status of the owner of the house.

Curled up and put his robe sleeves together, Zhou Yiban lay in the car cloak. He did not pull the curtains on the car, but only stretched his legs outside the car.

The old two-wheeled carriage without shock absorption systems and rubber tires kept bumping all the way, even the more high-end stone roads.

However, Zhou Yi is very accustomed to this kind of bumps, especially in today's environment.

His mood is very "empty" at this moment.

The bumpy wheels, the specially opened curtains, and the slowly retreating street scene... Whenever these elements are gathered together, Zhou Yi's memory will pop up an unforgettable scene: when he came out of his hometown in Ezhou, he fled from his equally bumpy carriage and left the Ezhou city gate and boarded the Yangtze River Wharf.

Everything is so specious... the same stone road, the same river in the city, the same high wall. At this moment, the distance merged with Ezhou and Guangzhou, where he was, making Zhou Yi's thoughts empty and he was in a "etheless" state.

The rare state of relaxation of thoughts was interrupted by the noise soon.

When Zhou Yi was alert, he suddenly found that the carriage had passed through the quiet water-crossing street and arrived at Xingshi Street, not far from the south gate.

Zhou Yi immediately reached into his arms, took out an exquisite copper-shell pocket watch and took a look.

In the dim chalet, the green fluorescent pointer on the dial was brightly told Zhou Yi that it was the end of Xu hour - 9 o'clock in the evening.

"Fortunately, I can catch up."

Seeing that there was no problem with time, Zhou Yi felt relieved and lazily lying back into the car.

It has been almost an hour since he left Yang Liushui's house.

Zhou Yi had a very happy New Year's Eve tonight. It was not for those wines. The most important thing was to make up for the festive atmosphere and exchanges with Yang Liushui and his family. Zhou Yi, who was alone, gained "spiritual" replenishment in this distant foreign land.

In addition, this time, Yang Liushui's "work" and "organization" problems were completely solved, which was largely considered a "reward" of Yang Liushui. This arrangement made Zhou Yi very comfortable.

He knew that he would have been going on a foreign affairs job for a long time in the future. If he didn't settle Yang Liushui, he wouldn't feel at ease when he was away.

However, emotions will eventually dissipate. When the carriage came to the noisy street, Zhou Yi, who seemed to be lying lazily in the carriage, had actually seamlessly switched to the "work" state and became the imperial minion produced by the cold training system.

——————————————————————————————————————

With the increasing influence of the new district, the seemingly old and slow old Guangzhou city has been affected in all aspects, and the Nandamen building complex is the biggest change.

In the years before this, although there were various traditional programs inside and outside the city after nightfall, most of them were limited to the "entertainment industry", such as painting boats and Xingyuan Street. As for the rest of the city, most of them were pitch black.

At night, it actually has nothing to do with ordinary people. This is the 17th century, and ordinary people just light an oil lamp and can't afford to play other programs.

However, today when the carriage turned around and the streets of the city, the noise and dense lights came to the face, which caught people off guard.

Under the night, this area near the Danan Gate of Guangzhou has now become a lively market. The road is surrounded by various foods, including traditional rice noodles, wontons and glutinous rice chicken, and sometimes new fried chicken, barbecue and food stalls.

Most of these stalls are hung with bright kerosene lamps. Amid the smoke and smoke from cooking, many diners from somewhere crowded their seats, and the laughter kept clamoring and quarreling, making the stall owner sweat.

After going forward, we went further to the square inside the South Gate. It was also brightly lit, and trucks from the city and north of the city were parked all over the square.

There was originally no square here in the South Gate. After entering the South City Gate, there were shops and residences on the main street and both sides.

Later, one day, the government went crazy and forced a large area of ​​land inside and outside the South Gate to demolish. Later, a two-story building was built around the square and started renting it out to various large commercial banks for rent.

Now when night falls, goods from the city and north of the city will gather in the square inside the South Gate to inspect goods and put them in the account. Major merchants will transport the goods out of the South Gate early the next morning to ship, and pass them across the river to the new district in time.

The carriage that Zhou Yi was riding in came to the South City Gate in this strange environment that had not been seen in thousands of years and was as bright as daylight.

When he arrived at the gate of the south city, Zhou Yi got off the carriage and first took out the broken silver and settled the account with the coachman.

Below he tidied up his clothes, then walked out of the city with ordinary steps.

If it were a few years ago, at this time, the main gate of Guangzhou South City would have been closed long ago. However, in recent years, with the clearance of surrounding bandits and the development of commercial activities, the gate closing time of Guangzhou Old Town, the closest gate to the new district, is getting more and more, and now it will often not be closed until the hour of Hai (23 o'clock).

Zhou Yi did not encounter any trouble when he left the city... The guard who was responsible for collecting money at the city gate would not pay attention to a person who was dressed ordinary, had ordinary faces, and had ordinary behaviors, and would forget him through his eyes.

When he walked out of the city gate, Zhou Yi passed by a large number of "workers" who looked tired and wore denim work clothes. These people were the root cause of the bustling and prosperity inside and outside the South Gate - the indigenous people in the city who were off the evening shift in the new district.

The weak basic industry and the rapid expansion speed have caused the embarrassing situation of "hard to find a house" in the new district. In addition, refugees who are constantly transported from the sea need to be resettled, so there are still many workers in the old city who have not been able to get a house. They can only do a ship to cross the river to and get off work every day, just like the losers who live in the Seventh Ring Road in later generations.

Passing through the majestic and heavy southern city gate, Zhou Yi saw the dazzling lights on the other side of the river at a glance. On the night of the 17th century, the lights attracted the attention of the natives and were so shocking. I don’t know how many indigenous elites were impressed by the great power represented by the lights and devoted themselves to the cause of traveling through the times without hesitation.

At night outside the South Gate, no one was resting, and the hardworking Mingren had already started working night shifts. Small passenger ships and cargo ships with lights hanging on the bow of the ship were coming in and out on the dock, busy. There is also the "highway" construction site outside the South Gate, where the prototype of later county-level highways has appeared.

In order to provide the huge appetite of the new district, the original industrial chain has long been established. On the short journey to the wharf, Zhou Yi saw live ducks and geese that were not far away from three ships, waiting in line to get on the slaughtering boat.

A living goose in Qingyuan will be processed all night by the industrial chain and will turn into a smooth embryonic goose into the new area at three or four o'clock in the morning. By tomorrow morning, the embryonic goose will turn into a fragrant beeswax roast goose, lying in a porcelain plate waiting for Mr. Shingui to enjoy it.

At the same time, all the goose feathers and duck feathers will be collected and sent to the factory to make down jackets for export, and there will be no waste.

Zhou Yi arrived at the pier and skillfully boarded the passenger ship in the waiting area.

Not long after, the small passenger ship was full. The boatman shouted a slogan, pulled the sails to start, and rowed the boat to the other side of the river.

The ships on the river are in order, and there are special roads to ensure traffic order.

The "road" on the water surface is composed of two groups of waterproof buoys burning with kerosene inside. This magical upper part is a glass "night light". Every passenger who sees this wonderful thing for the first time will be amazed.

The guide route composed of night buoys can allow the ship to cross the wide river surface without any danger at night in the 17th century and go straight to the new district wharf.

When Zhou Yi jumped onto the pier in the new district, it was 9:40.

When I arrived at the new district, it was my own territory, and there were no taboos. Zhou Yi got on the dock, and in the waiting area, he skillfully slept with people a beautiful four-wheeled carriage and went to Central Street.

"Central Street" is the earliest administrative district street established. This street with a large cross turntable in the center of the street is wide and high-end, surrounded by core administrative units. The square nearby is naturally called "Central Square".

The hardened road surface of the new district is flat and hard. A four-wheeled carriage with a spring shock absorption system runs on it, which is stable and fast.

Not long after, Zhou Yi got off at the Da Cross, then walked through the square east of the Cross, and turned into the Plaza East Road.

From here on, the investigation became stricter. Zhou Yi first accepted a temporary investigation at the intersection of Plaza East Road.

The live ammunition team of the sporting inspection team was very interested in Zhou Yi, the "Mingren" who dared to come to wander the east road of the square late at night. However, the next moment, when Zhou Yi took out his ID, the people of the inspection team understood: it turned out to be the dog boy of the General Administration of Intelligence.

In this way, after another fixed inspection post, Zhou Yi finally walked to his unit: No. 11, Plaza East Road.

Ordinary iron doors, ordinary doormen, oil lamps hanging on the window, and old man napping behind the glass window... No. 11, Plaza East Road is a very ordinary administrative unit, probably a clean yamen like the Archives Bureau.

However, when Zhou Yi stepped into the iron gate and bypassed the screen wall, he, who was familiar with the inside story, suddenly felt the gaze of n pairs of eyes.

Zhou Yi knew that at this moment, he suddenly stood under a bright LED light bulb, and his eyes couldn't react, and he couldn't see any object a few meters away.

He was illuminated by high-intensity lights, not only was he stared at the gun guards on the left and right sides, but also the sniper on the wall in the darkness in the left and right fronts - Zhou Yi himself had been a blocker on duty, and his rifle shooting event in the training camp was 95 points.

He slowly took out the blue-skinned certificate and shook it. Under the light, he reached out to make an internal gesture. Zhou Yi and others' eyes adapted to the light, and then steadily moved forward, passed through the "target area" and came to the real concierge of the General Administration of Intelligence.

The next moment, the duty officer wearing a big cap in the doorman began to register with the ID.

"Name."

"Zhou Yi."

"Reason."

“Sales off.”
Chapter completed!